EVALUATION
It was a big mistake to switch this change request to address the documentation improvement aspect instead of using a new, separate request for that change. That separate request will be filed and become a "see also" for this request. This request has been changed to a request for enhancement targeted to Dolphin. Excellent technical discussion has been going on between the ThreadLocal author and other experts and this CR's submitter. The submitter has prototyped a high quality solution that can subclass ThreadLocal and support effective reclamation of objects without requiring Thread termination or impacting users dependent on ThreadLocal characteristics. See the URL below for details. Exercise of this prototype solution would be very helpful to confirm its usefulness and help its author determine any areas needing further attention.
http://jroller.com/page/tackline?entry=working_around_the_threadlocal_leak

2006-05-05

EVALUATION
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2006-03-15

EVALUATION
ThreadLocal simply wasn't designed for the kind of usage mentioned in the description. The effort and expertise put into the suggested fix is appreciated. However a redesign of the class to meet the new requirements would necessarily impose a large performance penalty on all users of ThreadLocal. This penalty can't be justified for the sake of the special use case.
This CR has been changed to a documentation change. The ThreadLocal.remove method doc will explain the importance of this method to avoid leakage of self-referential structures.